2007-02-22

Google Maps Image Cutter Software Released

CASA is proud to announce the release of the Image Cutter software for Google Maps. Written by Richard Milton, as part of the GeoVue project, Image Cutter is an application designed to take any image or a digital photo and cut it into tiles which are subsequently displayed on a Google Map. Using this tool, large images can be published on the web in a format that allow the user to pan and zoom using the standard Google Maps interface - as illustrated in the working example below.

Although publishing large digital photos is the most obvious application, this technique can be used for annotated maps of an area that are not to scale e.g. directions for how to get to the office.Download version 1.0

1) Program starts without error2) When searching for a large .jpg I found that I was unable to access files on external hard drives3) When the file was moved to desktop I selected it and nothing happened - as in the program did not begin to load .jpg (9,000x6,000)4) Opened the file again, nothing happened5) Closed program, tried new .jpg, still nothing happened.6) Opened program again, selected small .jpg (900x600) and the program acknowledged it7) The picture did not show up on the screen but the name of the file and it's pixel size shows up on the bottom 8) Hit create, did not change default number of tiles, and clicked start, then finish9) Folder created with the name of the file + tiles10) No tiles present in folder11) HTML file created

I hope this helps!

I currently use Zoomify, but agree that there is a need for a Gmap interface for viewing large images.

Please do not post this comment, as it's for the developers. My e-mail is down!

The application should work on a Mac as it's written in Java, but without a Mac to try it out on, we had to release it untested on that platform. My guess is that the memory allocated for the Java Virtual Machine that the application runs in isn't large enough to cope with the image you are loading. What you need to do is run the application from the command line. I would explain how to do this if I could, but I haven't used a Mac for years, so I have no idea how to do it. The readme file contains the necessary command line with options to increase the available memory. If you want any additional help, email me on support@casa.ucl.ac.uk

I understand that this is a 1.0 release so features are minimal, however there are a couple of things I'd love to see added soon:- The smaller than 100% tiles have the 'shimer' characteristic of nearest neighbour resampling. Woul dit be possible to add an option to use bicubic sampling for the resize? This would mean much higher quality previews.- For images that do not wrap, could it be possible to have a checkbox that would prevent wrapping and limit the scrolling to the edge of the image? For now I've had to put a black border around my pano to keep it isolated from its wrapper partners.- Can we get the html generator to optionally create a 'map overview' box for navigating the image when at 100%?

I love it... It's Magic! But. It doesn't work on my 30000x30000 image which I reeeeally need cut up. It seems as if there is a limit of about 10000 pixels square that this map cutter can handle. Any tricks as to how I can cut up my map? The map I need cut is actually 32768x32768.